Archive for December, 2008

CHARLOTTE, NC: Actors Theatre of Charlotte announces two exciting all-day workshops for actors, taught by professional actor Martin Thompson. Both workshops will provide hands-on experience in auditioning, working, marketing your skills, and running your business as an actor – taught from the unique perspective of a working professional actor!

Seating for both of these workshops is extremely limited, and advanced reservations are required. No walk-ins! To book your seat for this seminar series, call Actors Theatre of Charlotte at 704-342-2251, or visit them on the web at http://www.actorstheatrecharlotte.org

Reservations will be accepted beginning January 2nd, 2009.

The cost for each seminar is $95. Or, you can attend both for only $150! That’s just $75 each, for two all-day events! Call Actors Theatre, to reserve your place.

Auditioning and Working on Camera
From the actor’s perspective
Saturday, January 17th, 2009 10AM – 5PM

Casting directors can tell you what they want to see at an audition. But, in this workshop you’ll discover how to actually get there, from the actor’s perspective! This full-day workshop will lead actors through the process of booking the job, using unique audition strategies that allow the actor to win every time! Then, we’ll focus on the mechanics and special acting techniques required to work in front of the camera, after you’ve booked the job. All participants will be video-taped, and we will use actual scenes from television shows and movies that have been auditioned and filmed in our area. Age limit: 12 and up.

Topics will include:

Your Type, and how to maximize your edge
Ace the Interview
Taking control in the audition, and making it yours
The mechanics of on-camera auditioning
The art and science of auditioning at your best
The secrets that Casting Directors WON’T tell you!
The unique requirements of on-camera performance
Working and rehearsing on the set
Adapting Stage performance to the camera
Acting to an eye-line, what’s that?
and MORE…..

The Actor’s Real Job
Running your Acting Career as a Business
Saturday, January 24th, 2009 10AM – 5PM

It’s not enough just to be good at what you do, it’s also important to make a living doing it! 90% of the actor’s job is looking for work, the other 10% is spent actually working! In this workshop we’ll learn the essential tools of managing your career as a business, and discover how to turn your “hobby” into a lucrative career. We’ll create marketing materials – headshots, resumes, demos, websites – that stand out from the crowd, and sell you at your best! You’ll learn how to most effectively market yourself, how to assemble your team, what pitfalls to look out for, and when to move to the next level in your career. Age limit 18 and up.

Topics will include:

What are you selling? Branding yourself.
Who is buying, and how do I market to them?
The tools of the trade, and how to maximize their effectiveness
Agents: How do I get one, and how do I keep them?
The Casting Director: What are they looking for?
Job opportunities in the Southeast. Where is the work?
Unions: When should I join?
Record keeping and, ugh… Taxes!
and MUCH MORE!

About the Instructor

Martin Thompson (AEA-AFTRA-SAG) is an award winning professional actor with over 25 years of credits in Television, Motion Pictures, Commercials, and Industrials, as well as extensive Theatre credits on the New York stage and in Regional Theatres across the country. His daytime television work includes roles on The Guiding Light, The Edge of Night, and All My Children. His motion picture credits include Spies, Mr. Destiny, and Billy Bathgate with Dustin Hoffman. He recently completed filming the upcoming feature Blood Done Sign My Name, and will soon be seen co-starring with Dean Jones in Mandie and the Secret Tunnel, and opposite Kevin Costner in The New Daughter.

Hi everyone! Just a reminder that the ONGOING coat drive ends this Friday evening. And also a reminder that there is NOT a specific event tomorrow (Fri) night at Manuel’s, it’s just a time I had to put in to the invite : )

So far, 170 coats have been donated!! Most of this batch have been delivered to Atlanta Day Shelter for Women & Children and Open Door Community. I will be going to other shelters with the remaining loads.

The Chez Group instructors are among the top professionals in the industry, all of whom excel in their own right. In addition to Shay Bentley-Griffin, instructors include Shannon Eubanks, Ric Reitz, Judge Luckey, Steve Coulter and Deborah Calloway Duke. It is also our pleasure to be able to offer special workshops with regional industry professionals and visiting instructors from Los Angeles and New York. Working with these individuals is inspiring, because they each have attained success in the film and television industry. Over the course of the year we will have the opportunity to work with a variety of experts to include directors, writers, casting directors, agents and actors from LA and New York.

Upcoming Classes or Workshops:

Adult Workshop
with Lance Dreeson and Shannon Eubanks
January 17 & 18Please join us for a very important weekend! *Lance Dreeson will be the acting instructor for the November 15 – 16 program.

Lance has recently directed “Our Child Is Missing”

He produced “Conjurer” in 2007

He is a partner in Red Five Entertainment,which opened an office in Georgia in 2008

Young Actors Workshop
With MATT FLECTER from the Michael Green Agency in LA
January 24 & 25

Many of you already have this information from having spoken to us on the phones but this is a final invitation to a rare and wonderful (and maybe even a holiday gift) class that will be taking place in January!

The Chez Studio is always striving to create new and exceptional learning opportunities for our actors who have plans to work in Los Angeles in the future. We also want to enable those in the Southeast with the skills and knowledge to succeed in this marketplace.

With this mind we have decided, with your support, to invite talent agent Matt Fletcher from the Michael Green Agency for our next workshop! He presently represents actors that live in both L.A. and Atlanta. He is an exemplary teacher and we are so excited to have him come to Atlanta.

This is Matt’s second trip to Atlanta and the first was a huge success! Since many have signed up for the January dates we want to offer you a special opportunity to be a part of this workshop. Since we will be bringing a guest from L.A. the fee will be increased by $50.00 for those already signed up. New members’ fee will be $265.00. Partial deposits MUST be made by Friday, December 19th, 2008 and full payment amounts are due by January 10th, 2009.

I know that you are aware of the extra cost for an out of state guests. We always strive to keep an affordable rate for our program while giving you the opportunity to work with the best in the industry. We are now accepting checks immediately.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call or contact us as soon as possible.

Let’s keep Georgia talent working on a national level.

Congratulations to the state of Georgia’s film industry! Over TEN FILMS have been shot in Georgia casting some 100+ Georgia actors over that last 2 1/2 months! Together we have made it happen! Our actors are working here and in LA … and former Georgia actors from LA are coming here. What an exciting time to be a part of the film business!

Learn, create and perform under the guidance of professional film & video director, Michael Lucker.

* The Director’s View: Seeing acting through the director’s eyes and ears.
* Great Expectations: Giving the director what he wants, needs, and doesn’t expect.
* Arcs and Acts: Acting for the big picture.
* More Than You: Acting in multi-character, multi-purpose scenes.
* The Little Things: Acting with subtlety for film and video.
* The Whole Shebang: Acting with wardrobe, make-up, lights, crew, moving camera, multi-camera.
* The Location Shoot: Acting with ambience and unknowns.
* The Showcase: Acting on stage before agents and industry pros with video of the location shoot.

The Director’s Chair is a unique and exciting, new, eight week workshop that enables the working actor to work with a professional film & video director. In a fun and creative environment, students will learn what directors are really looking for in auditions, how to break down new material and make it their own, prepare with techniques that are right for creative and commercial sets and discover how to give directors the goods they’re looking for and the surprises they’re excited to see. The class will shoot multi-camera pieces on location that will serve as video presentations for an agency showcase and to take away from the class to use on their reels.

Michael Lucker is a creative writer, director, producer and consultant with over fifteen years experience in developing film, television, animation and digital media. Driven to write stories as a child, he studied film and broadcasting at Boston University’s College of Communication.

After graduation he moved to Los Angeles where luck and fate collided landing him a job as assistant to Steven Spielberg on Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade, Always, Arachnophobia and Back To The Future II. Michael then rose to creative affairs at Hollywood Pictures where he aided in the development of Crimson Tide, Terminal Velocity and Straight Talk.

Still afflicted with a passion for the page, he left the city for the beach and embarked on a career as a screenwriter, co-writing more than twenty scripts for such studios as Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures, DreamWorks SKG and Universal Television. Among the projects produced were Vampire In Brooklyn, Mulan II, Home On The Range, Emperor’s New Groove II, 101 Dalmatians II, Black Cat and Spirit, which won the Academy Award in 2002 as best animated feature.

Always partial to the South, Michael returned home to Atlanta where he consults to acclaimed writers, award-winning producers, prominent cable companies and, most recently, the Turner Entertainment Group in launching its broadband comedy network Super Deluxe. He serves on the board of directors of the Georgia Writers Association, lectures at Image Film & Video Center and speaks regularly to a wide variety of media organizations. In 2008 he signed on with Atlanta-based Encyclomedia which now serves as home to the projects he writes, directs and produces. You can write to him at michael@encyclomedia.net.

Call Della or Bob at 404-499-9996 or email them at dellabob@youract.tv and give them your contact info. They’ll contact you when you have the audition date set with Michael.

The early deadline for the 14th Annual Palm Beach International Film Festival (PBIFF), taking place April 23-30, 2009, is approaching! The early deadline for submission is December 19, 2008; the late deadline is January 23, 2009.

Last year’s festival attracted worldwide media coverage for filmmakers in the New York Times, A&E Network, Comcast, Variety, Hollywood Reporter and in hundreds of newspapers and magazine articles.

A&E Network selected the Palm Beach International Film Festival to be the first to participate in its new “A&E IndieFilms Spotlight” campaign. As part of the campaign, select films from PBIFF aired on the network and on the website, with one selected film televised nationally on A&E. The program was part of A&E IndieFilms’ on-going efforts to highlight and support independent filmmaking.

The 2009 Festival will feature numerous seminars designed to help develop independent filmmakers of today and tomorrow. In addition to screenings of independent films representing filmmakers from around the world, the Festival organizers have planned eight days and nights of seminars, workshops, endless networking opportunities and parties at exciting and innovative venues.

Filmmakers worldwide are encouraged to submit their projects for consideration. All selected films are eligible to be included in the competition for “Audience Favorite” in the following categories – Feature, Short and Documentary. The competitive portion of the film festival is available in the categories of Best Feature, Best Documentary and Best Short along with other awards.

Entry forms and eligibility guidelines are available on www.withoutabox.com and the festival’s website, www.pbifilmfest.org. Discounted entry fees are provided for films submitted by December 19, 2008, and the final deadline is January 23, 2009. For more information, please call (561)362-0003 or visit www.pbifilmfest.org.

Annual Holiday Charity Drive to benefit Atlanta Day Shelter for Women & Children
They need your help in making the holidays special for local homeless women and children. Donate new items from their holiday wish list such as toiletries, socks, gloves and toys (ages 7 – 18).

&

Start Your Holiday Shopping Early!
Take advantage of this opportunity to do a little holiday shopping and support local women owned businesses and artists that will be onsite providing handcrafted items for your gift-giving needs.